January

Cory Doctorow delivered this year’s visiting writer lecture to a packed house in Main Auditorium at the annual event sponsored by the Freshman Reading Program and the College of Arts and Sciences. A science fiction writer, blogger, and technology activist, Doctorow is a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-editor of the popular blog site “Boing Boing.” He has won numerous awards for his writing and activism, including the 2000 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the 2007 Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award, and the 2009 Sunburst Award.

Children are fascinated by dinosaurs. Fossil museums, such as the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, create an avenue for engendering interest in the sciences at an early age. Few, though, are fortunate enough to turn that fascination into a successful career in the field of paleontology.

As the field of psychology struggles to develop a clear, scientific approach for diagnosis and clinical treatment of psychological disorders, Dr. James Herbert, professor of psychology and CoAS associate dean, strives to accelerate this transition through supportive clinical research. His internet-based research does not stem from an interest in technologies per se, but rather, in how modern media can close the gap between state-of-the-art treatments and clinical application.

The Woodlands, a historic mansion, cemetery and landscape, holds notable individuals such as artist Thomas Eakins, United States congressman James Thompson, and the founder of Drexel University, Anthony Joseph Drexel. A twenty-minute walk from the main campus, the Woodlands is rich with culture and history, but not a likely destination for Drexel students. However, on Saturday, October 10, 2010, several students rediscovered this area when their University 101 class, led by English faculty members Rachel Wenrick and Dan Driscoll, endeavored to clean up the Woodlands as part of Philadelphia’s “Beautification Day.”

On Tuesday, November 17, 2009, Dean Murasko joined with President Pennoni and the Papadakis family to break ground on the Constantine Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building, which will be located at the corner of 33rd and Chestnut Streets.

As a clinical neuropsychologist and an associate research professor in the Department of Psychology, Dr. Maria Schultheis's clinical and research experience focuses on the rehabilitation of cognitively impaired populations. Her studies examine the demands of operating an automobile and the indicators of driving aptitude. Her best known work, Handbook for the Assessment of Driving Capacity, is a resource for industry professionals on determining driving capacity for individuals who have experienced traumas such as stroke or dementia.

Author, playwright, and performance artist Kate Bornstein, a male-female transsexual, shared with eager Drexel students her personal and professional perspective on understanding the current binary model of gender identification. Bornstein’s existence contradicts the binary notion of gender as we know it because she identifies herself as neither a man nor a woman.

Rarely are college students given an opportunity to attend an event where the adjectives to describe it are both “delicious” and “educational.” But students had that opportunity when the Hospitality Management program, the Culinary Arts and Food Science Program, Sigma Xi, the Department of Biology, and the College of Arts and Sciences, invited Drexel students to “know their cheese.”

In October, Alisa Melekhina, a Drexel sophomore majoring in philosophy, won third place in the 2009 Women’s Chess Championship held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis Missouri. The tournament was a ten-player, round robin, for the top ten female chess players in the country, as determined by official USCF rankings.